Many folk are understandably miffed that Hotline Miami 2 has been refused classification in Australia. Following the Classification Board's confirmation yesterday came an official response from publisher Devolver Digital claiming the offending material had been misrepresented. Now a spokesperson from studio Dennaton Games has gone one step further, suggesting Australians should go ahead and pirate the game.
Responding to a concerned fan's email—posted to the Reddit sub r/PCMasterRace and later verified by Polygon—lead designer Jonatan Söderström had the following to say: "If it ends up not being release in Australia, just pirate it after release. No need to send us any money, just enjoy the game!"
So there you go. While it's nice to have the developer's blessing to download a video game for free, it's not hard for Australians to purchase banned video games digitally. Whereas other recent titles like Saints Row IV and South Park: The Stick of Truth have been slightly changed to accommodate the Australian Classification Board, it doesn't look likely to happen with Hotline Miami 2.
"Though we have no plans to officially challenge the ruling, we stand by our developers, their creative vision for the storyline, its characters and the game and look forward to delivering Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number to fans very soon," publisher Devolver Digital wrote yesterday.
Update: The original version of this article didn't credit the email's source, r/PCMasterRace. This has been corrected.
